


Turn Off the TV and Look Only at Me

by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 18:03:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13863009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnHeiressofaSOLDIER/pseuds/AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: When Sora and Kairi learn that Xehanort sent them all on a wild goose chase (it was only ever the Princesses of Heart he needed, and thus the search for the “Guardians of Light” was just him tricking our heroes into leaving the Seven Pure Lights unprotected), Sora and Kairi spend the evening together–as they hold onto each other, waiting for the Xehanorts to find them and for the world to end… But as they nervously sit with each other that night, just listening to music, they still manage to find hope for the future and an unspoken confession about their feelings for each other.





	Turn Off the TV and Look Only at Me

Sora and Kairi were sitting beside each other in Hiro’s world, as they waited for the end to come:

Xehanort had lied.  
  
He didn’t need seven “Guardians of Light” at all.   
  
Rather, he had used the time everyone had been on a pointless quest to find heroes, to hunt down Kairi’s fellow Princesses of Heart—the _real_ key to Kingdom Hearts—unchallenged.  
  
And it had been Hiro Hamada who had figured it all out:  
  
Before Sora had left Sanfransokyo, he had taken the risk of telling Hiro the truth.  
  
And at first, he had hated himself for mentioning other worlds, that had then made an entire explanation of everything else necessary—and he had been able to tell that Donald, Jiminy, and even Goofy were at once upset about it—but _now_ Sora found that he wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

It was the greatest thing he’d ever done.

For Hiro had later invited them all back to his world, after the boy genius had had time to stop and think about Xehanort’s gambit.

Hiro’d then gone as far to say that no one—not even a time traveler—could be _that_ clever, as to have created a win-win situation for himself, and that he was probably just going after the Seven Pure Lights in the guise of something else.

Riku had been the one to check then. And sure enough, Hiro had right.

Things… things were looking bleak now, Sora had to admit—while he alone tried to protect Kairi, while everyone else tried to find and stop the Darknesses before they could get to her or the other Pure Lights.

And he really didn’t know what had prompted him to hold Kairi now—except maybe for the fact that he’d always wanted to do so, and now might be his last chance and Sora didn’t know how long it would last… but he was so so _so_ thrilled by this moment, and he _wasn’t_ letting it go. No matter what.  
  
Beautiful music drifted the pair’s way—from something called a radio, coming from the room where Hiro had once made some armor for the Keyblade wielders—and it was peaceful, despite everything.   
  
And Sora sat completely still as he listened to it, which surprised him:

The only time he really moved a muscle during it at all, was just to hold Kairi tighter when he felt her somewhat sliding off the bench they were sitting on.

Kairi, oh the other hand, was swaying to the music ever so slightly; and her feet were twining together: a clear sign that she was nervous, Sora decided—as he thought about the many times she’d before put her hands behind her back in a similar manner.

Sora longed to tell her that he’d _never_ let Xehanort find her here, and that she’d be safe no matter _what_ happened… but the words wouldn’t come. 

And as much as the faux-Light hated himself for the lack of noise he made… he was also kind of glad for it:

This way, if anyone happened upon them at all, they’d be able to hear and make ready for the threat.

And moreover… just being together like this was kind of nice in its own right.

Though Sora and Kairi’s lips weren’t saying what needed to be said, their hearts still knew everything… there was no greater truth than that in Sora’s life.

Eventually, Kairi started whispering words that she thought came next in the song that they were listening to.

…But she didn’t actually know the work at all: And because of this, Sora thought he caught her singing about some kind of mouse in a house—as opposed to the correct lyric of “burning down the house”, which was positively hilarious to him.

He laughed. And Kairi was quick to join in.

And Sora, with his laughter making him shake, leaned his forehead against Kairi’s –enough so that he could smell her breath of peppermint. 

And to make her feel better about her mistake, perhaps, he quietly whispered that he’d thought the correct line was “turn on the house”… which was the exact opposite of something either of them would want to happen, after having to deal with a Smart House in a certain world…

But after that admission from Sora, they were both quiet again—as they turned back to the music, listened, and tried very hard to just focus on the here and now.

Somewhere down the line, Kairi begun tapping on Sora’s shoulder. And even as long as Sora had known her, he’d never seen her do this before.

But in remembering how Kairi had just been swaying, and how she liked to dance in general, he figured that what she was doing probably wasn’t just nervous fidgeting. 

And if he was feeling it right… it seemed like Kairi was drawing a star atop him?  
  
No, a paopu fruit.  
  
“Kairi…”  
  
It took no genius to figure out what they’d both been trying to tell each other in this silence.

And not just in this unspoken moment… but many of the ones between them in the past:

Kairi’s having said “It’s my lucky charm, be sure to bring it back to me,” which had really meant, “Please come back to me.”

Or when the princess had told the battle-worn warrior “You’re home”: which was similar to what many wives on the Islands said to their husbands when they came back from working at sea.

And then when they’d both seen the paopu drawing, they’d been _so_ comfortable with each other after it.

There’d been a certain understanding between them then… the both of them knowing that when Sora got his letter from King Mickey to go on his next journey, that really it was only _Kairi_ who could’ve made him stay… and yet she had still chosen to let Sora go, despite how much it had hurt her.

And that- that was why Sora loved his best friend so much: And would protect her and the other Princesses from unlocking Kingdom Hearts for Xehanort, no matter what it took.

Or from dying at the old geezer’s hand. 

…Really, Sora had really always known how Kairi had felt for him—it had been there in their magnetism towards each other, even in times he’d been the tiniest bit irritated at her… but still couldn’t look away, like when she had whacked him on the head and called him a lazy bum.

And the sketching on the cave walls hadn’t just been _there_ : But by having moved to make those, the two of them had gestured with their _hearts_ that they wanted their lives to be intertwined forever.

They’d just never talked about any of it.

And now, at the end of the world, they were both realizing that they had never needed to.

“Shh, Sora,” Kairi said, against any confession Sora might have chosen to give now. “Everyone knows what I’m trying to articulate by drawing a point on your shoulder. Come on. Don’t ruin this instance.”  
  
A point… the edges on a paopu fruit, perhaps, or did Kairi mean a blade?  
  
If she meant a paopu fruit, Sora knew _exactly_ what she was saying: It was as he had just theorized:

That they both knew how they felt, and there was no need to vocalize it.

But if Kairi had meant the point of a blade… What was she saying? That there was a chance that either of them, or both of them, might die at the end of one—ala Romeo and Juliet—and so if their story ended up tragic like that… there was no denying what kind of feeling had been between them?

Well, if that was the case, she wasn’t wrong…

But at the end of the day, neither of them was as morbid as all of that, so Sora was sure she had meant the paopu thing.

Yes, they might both die right now, or tomorrow: that was the reality of the situation.

Both Sora and Kairi were aware of it, and that was part of the reason they were even in close quarters with each other right now.

But even if sharing a paopu fruit with someone _was_ love, in the same way that stabbing yourself so you could join your beloved in death would be… Sora couldn’t believe that the light, Kingdom Hearts, or the gods of Mount Olympus had let them all come this far, just to they could meet _that_ fate.

And Kairi must have thought the same exact thing.

Because the moment all the power in Hiro’s house went out—Xehanort must have ripped out the power lines, so that he and Kairi would be less likely to see the coming attack—Kairi summoned a light to hand, and leaned her head on Sora’s shoulder.

She also squeezed his hand in her own—just before they saw Vanitas in particular coming their way, and summoned their Keyblades and prepared for whatever jumping into the fray would entail.

A single tear slid down Sora’s face, but it wasn’t one of defeat or longing… but rather one of hope.

And as Kairi brushed it away, even as she sent a Pearl attack Luxord’s way, Sora quickly spun Kairi into the enemy—using his friends as his power as he always had; and boy, if the two of them didn’t fight perfectly together—and knew that their tale could only end with him looking only at her, as he did now.

**Author's Note:**

> The last line is a reference to Hikari “Turn off the TV, and look only at me”; and the fact that Sora thinks he will be able to do that after this fight, is a hint that he and Kairi will survive.
> 
> That line’s also supposed to be an evolution of Hikari, like Don’t Think Twice seems to be of Simple and Clean (and Oath of Hikari), hinting that Sora and Kairi have moved further in their relationship—if Sora’s now actually doing what Kairi long ago asked him to do (because I always thought Hikari/Simple and Clean was probably her point of view?).
> 
> Anyway, I’ve been sitting on this story for a while… because even though I love parts of it—read: the idea, the beginning and middle—I kind of hate the ending, and didn’t know how to even end it for the longest time… The above is what I came up with for that ending—and it’s okay; I cherish parts of it—but I still mostly don’t know how I feel about it. Meh.
> 
> But this is based on an idea I had on Tumblr, that I finally wrote myself, that I want a scene in KHIII where Sora and Kairi realize they might die in the Keyblade War… and sort of have a confession scene. But instead of it being a typical, kind of loud and noisy, cliché thing you’d expect… Well, it’s actually unspoken—though they both know what the other’s thinking/feeling, through understood signals and touches: I just like things like that. And tbh, I think it’s pretty SoKai… and kind of the way they HAVE behaved this saga. IDK.
> 
> But think Harry and Hermione dancing in The Deathly Hallows movie (even though that one’s not romantic… or shouldn’t be): that’s sort of what I’m going for here.
> 
> I don’t really know how well I succeeded in it, but at least I tried. And maybe now, if nothing else, I can learn from this and improve on this kind of thing in the future.


End file.
